


...and then I found you.

by EleenaDume



Series: Spop fics! [11]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: ...not really, Adora/Catra is in the second and third chapter a lot more than in the first one, Aged-Up Character(s), All of the princesses are present but most of them are not that important, Best Friend Squad (She-Ra), Bow is just freaking stressed and losing his mind over his stubborn wife, But they're still not the main focus, Childbirth, Everyone is doing a great job at stressing out Bow and Glimmer even more than they already are, Everyone is married basically, F/F, F/M, Future Fic, Glimbow baby, Glimbow-centric, It’s extremely fun for everyone involved., Minor Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Minor Mermista/Sea Hawk (She-Ra), Minor Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra), Post-Canon, Scorpia and Perfuma have just straight up adopted Frosta at this point, They’re also the only ones that know what they’re doing in the slightest, This fic has cursing, Trans Perfuma (She-Ra), Who is also stressed as well as pretty panicked, but also has some of the other canon ships in the background, especially Catra and Adora in chapter two, for obvious reasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:27:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 12,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24863023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EleenaDume/pseuds/EleenaDume
Summary: “Bow...” Glimmer was white as a sheet now. “I think I’m having the baby.”“Did your water break?”“Yeah. ...about three hours ago? ... I think the baby wants out, like, right now!”“GLIMMER!”—Glimmer is convinced she can get through the rest of the meeting and then have her baby afterwards. The baby disagrees.Bow is losing his mind.Their friends are being semi-helpful.The healer is questioning their own choice of career.Companion fic to “One night, I wished upon a star...” which completes the title.
Relationships: Adora & Bow & Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Spop fics! [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1791085
Comments: 18
Kudos: 133





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Actually less a request than just the result of me and an acquaintance talking about Glimbow (and stubborn Glimmer that would insist on still working until literally the last minute of her pregnancy) for way too long that spiraled into a huge fic. This is the first out of either two or three parts, depending on how long the rest of this ends up being.

This was fine. _This was fine._ _** This was fine! ** _

Glimmer clenched her hands on the edge of the table again.

Shit. Was this supposed to hurt this much?

She breathed in and out, in and out, in and out until finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain finally subsided.

She didn’t really have much time to relax, though. The time that passed between the surges of pain lessened with what felt like every contraction. They were only about five minutes apart now.

This was fine. 

Just another half an hour, then they would be done with the meeting, and she could get to a healer and have her baby.

_ This was fine! ** And she was totally focused on what was being said! ** _

“Uhm... Should we, like, pause the meeting, or...?”

Mermista looked at her friend, eyebrow raised.

The entire meeting room was staring at her now.

“No, it’s fine! I’m great! Really! Just go on with what you were telling us about the new trading route!”

Glimmer gave them the world’s falsest smile, clenching her fists again.

“Uhm... we finished that topic about twenty minutes ago? Are you okay? Do you need medial attention? I feel like you do.“

The Queen of Brightmoon shook her head vigorously.

“Scorpia, that’s really, really sweet, but it’s fine! Really! I’m great!“

Glimmer had reached the point where she felt so sick and was in so much pain that she was certain she was about to either throw up or pass out on the meeting room table. Maybe both.

_** This was fine. ** _

“Uhm... are you sure? Sparkles, you look awful,” Catra cut in.

Adora nodded in agreement.

Both of them were immensely worried about their friend.

“Yes! Totally sure!”

Then the next contraction hit, and it was so painful that she couldn’t keep herself from screaming.

“Okay, that’s it!  You’ve never had practice contractions this bad, and  _** I don’t care if the healer said this is normal, we‘re done here and you’re seeing another healer IMMEDIATELY! ** _ ”

Bow was extremely worried.

Glimmer took a moment to reply, breathing heavily until the pain passed.

“It’s fine, really! I promise! We’re almost done here anyway! Let’s just wrap this up real quick, and then we can go see a healer!”

...right. Practice contractions. That’s what she‘d told him this was the day before. She’d completely blanked out on that until now.

She had had practice contractions before, and in the beginning, she’d really thought that was what this was. She’d taken a long bath to make herself feel better and had then gone to bed.

She’d actually slept relatively well through some of the earlier contractions that hadn’t been quite as long and intense.

Then they’d gotten worse and more frequent and had jolted her up from her sleep about every thirty minutes. 

By morning, the contractions been twenty minutes apart, and Bow had been pretty worried that she was having them again – which had been a faulty assumption on his part that Glimmer just kind of didn’t correct.

He’d told her to see a healer, which she’d promised she definitely would... but after this really important Princess Alliance-Meeting that she still had to attend. By then, she’d been pretty certain she knew what was going on, and the baby was still kicking and moving around the same way she had before, reminding her that she was alright, so she wasn’t worried about something being wrong with the baby. 

All of this had then led to her telling him that this was just... normal and how it was supposed to be – which it really was, according to the books, at least –, and Bow had just assumed a healer had told her, and she once again hadn’t corrected him.

She didn’t like being dishonest with him, but he wouldn’t have let her attend the meeting if she’d told him, and this was important. Bow was already super protective of her anyway and would have preferred it if she’d just taken some time off of work now that she was getting so close to her due date, so there was absolutely no way he would have let her work today if he‘d known what was going on.

But Glimmer had a kingdom to run.

Besides, the books said that it took several hours up to a full day from the first contraction to your body actually being ready to have the baby, especially if it was your first birth, so she could definitely get through the rest of this four hour meeting and then have her baby afterwards.

Probably.

_** This was totally, completely, definitely fine. ** _

And then the next contraction hit, and it was that very moment she knew that nothing was fine in the slightest.

The realization that she was having her baby  ** very, very soon  ** suddenly washed over her. It was as if someone had flipped the switch on her relatively relaxed ‘ _ I can do this _ ’-attitude, and from one moment to the next, she went into full-on panic mode.

She went back on her word from before.

“ALRIGHT, MEETING’S OVER, GOODBYE EVERYONE!” She yelled, punching her fists onto the table.

If the others’ attention hadn’t been on her since before anyway, it definitely would have been, now.

She needed to get out of here, she needed to get to the healers and-

Glimmer tried to get up. Her knees were weak and everything hurt, and she immediately collapsed back onto the chair, howling with pain.

“Glimmer!” 

Her husband was at her side straightaway. 

“I’m okay! I’m okay...”

She wasn’t. She really, really wasn’t. 

Bow put his arms around her, and she immediately melted into them and started sobbing. 

Stars, why did this hurt so much?

“It will be okay, I promise. We’ll take you to a healer immediately, and... you’ll be okay. Both of you will be okay.”

It wasn’t like that was something he could actually guarantee, but he was doing his best to stay calm because him freaking out while his wife was already freaking out would help absolutely nobody.

Seeing her this scared was still just as terrifying to him as it had been back when they were kids.

“No, you... you don’t understand. I’m okay, really. This is perfectly normal.”

He shook his head vigorously.

“Yeah, no. I appreciate the effort to calm me down, really, but there’s absolutely no way this is normal for practice contractions, you’re in way too much pain and you and the baby could be in danger so please don’t downplay this!”

“No, we’re fine. She’s kicking and we’re both fine. I just... don’t think these are practice contractions.”

“...what?” It a moment for his brain to process what she’d just said.Then his eyes widened. “Wait, you mean-”

“Bow...” Glimmer was white as a sheet now. “I think I’m having the baby.”

Okay, that... that was good, right? That did mean what she was going through right now was actually, really normal and Glimmer and the baby most likely weren’t in danger. But also...

_‘Oh stars Glimmer is having the baby!’_

Bow was excited. 

And also terrified.

“Did your water break yet?”

The amount of time his time took before answering made him really, really certain he probably wouldn’t like what she was about to say, and that she definitely knew that.

...he really didn’t like the answer he got when she finally replied.

“Yeah. ...about three hours ago?” The next contraction was so bad it brought tears to her eyes and almost made her faint. That was it. This was too much. The pain was unbearable. She couldn’t take it a single second longer. “I think the baby wants out, like, right now!”

All color drained from Bow’s face.

_ “ GLIMMER! ” _

That meant his wife wasn’t just... having the baby as in going in to labor, she was actually  _ having the baby .  ** Right now. ** _

Bow was usually a calm, collected, sensible person. He was currently _having a_ _ very hard time _ being  _ either of those things _ .

“I was  _ just _ trying to get through the meeting first!”

Admittedly, that didn’t seem like much of a decent justification anymore, even to Glimmer. Her defensive tone wasn’t even convincing herself, much less anyone else. Her voice was still shaking from the pain of the last contraction, and she knew there wasn’t much time for her to take a breather until the next one hit.

“I can’t believe you...” Bow shook his head and groaned, less mad than just in plain disbelief and shock. “How often are you having contractions? How far apart are they? Have you been keeping track?”

She thought for a moment.

"...Like, every minute or two? They're close, that's all I kn-" 

She wasn’t even able to finish the sentence before the next contraction hit her, this one even longer and even more intense and painful than the last. She screamed her lungs out.

It hurt. It hurt so, so, so, so much.

Glimmer’s body was on fire, and she was almost certain this was what dying felt like – although, who knew, at this point she all but guessed dying was actually more comfortable and hurt less.

_ “ EVERY MINUTE OR TWO? ARE YOU SERIOUS?! ” _

Bow was officially losing his mind.

His squeaky voice was pretty telling for just how freaked out he was.

_ ‘Why. Is. My. Wife. Like. This?! ’ _

This was bad.  This was really, _really_ ,  **_ really bad. _ **

Bow loved Glimmer, he really did, but there were moments like this where she drove him completely insane.

He took a moment to close his eyes and then took a couple of deep breaths to gather his thoughts. They could do this. They needed to, because he had to make sure Glimmer and the baby would be okay, and him freaking out was not helping right now, so he had to stay calm. He could still freak out later. Glimmer and his daughter needed to be his main priority now.

He was calmer and more collected when he opened his eyes again. He clapped his hands together.

“Okay. Catra, please go get some towels, a sanitized blanket and a bunch of pillows, would you? And Adora, we need a healer. Immediately. And ask them to bring medical supplies for the delivery. Everyone else: GET. OUT!”

Catra and Adora both just nodded and disappeared on their separate ways instantly. It wasn’t hard to grasp the importance of his requests, after all.

“ _ Wait wait wait wait wait _ , there’s no need for anyone to get out, or for anything else,  **_because I’m definitely not giving birth IN HERE!_ ** ”

Glimmer was tired and in pain and just wanted her bed. Or any bed, for that matter. Just something soft to lay down on that she could sink into that would make her feel a little better. And she definitely did not want to stay in here of all places!

“Love...” Bow’s voice was soft and sweet and sounded really worried. “You can’t even stand up. Forget it. We’re not moving you. I’d be happy if we could get you onto the table so you could lie down, but I’m not even sure we can manage that.”

Glimmer gulped. She really, really couldn’t imagine giving birth in here. She just wanted a bed – was that really too much to ask?

“I- I could try teleport-” She suggested.

Bow didn’t even let her finish. There was absolutely no way he would let that happen.

“Oh no, you don’t! Glimmer, I love you, but your powers have been acting up for a while now because of your pregnancy, _**and**_ _** I have absolutely no desire to help you give birth on a tree! ** _ ”

He really didn’t want to find out where her attempt to teleport during contractions would possibly land them.

“WELL, I DON’T WANT TO GIVE BIRTH IN THE MEETING ROOM EITHER!”

“Glimmer-”

She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, but then the next contraction hit and this just absolutely, definitely wasn’t happening.

She couldn’t even focus on teleporting long enough to screw it up, which hadn’t happened to her before, ever. And it somehow felt even worse than back when she’d had problems with her powers because of Shadow Weaver’s curse.

The Queen of Bright Moon sunk back into her chair, screaming.

“Okay. Okay, you’re right,” she mumbled after a while when the pain passed. “This won’t work. But I can’t- I can’t give birth in here.”

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t have to, but it’s not a choice anymore, Glim.” Bow was immensely relived that the teleporting hadn’t worked because who knew where they would have ended up if it had, but all of these people in here were stressing him out even more than he already was because of the whole situation. “Could somebody help me get her on the table, and could the rest of you guys PLEASE LEAVE?”

Since Glimmer had said she wasn’t staying in here so nobody had to leave, everyone as currently still standing around the room, either looking at her awkwardly or trying to avoid staring at her even more awkwardly.

“Oh, no problem, I’m out of here I have no desire to learn what I’ll go through in a couple of months,” Mermista commented, dragging her husband after her as she headed for the door.

At least some of the attention of the group shifted from Glimmer to Mermista for a moment.

Bow blinked in surprise.

“Wait... you’re pregnant?”

“Uh, duh? I thought everyone knew that?”

The mermaid seemed a little confused by the question.

Glimmer just looked at her with a pained expression.

“I’d say congratulations,  _** but right now I just feel like I’m dying, so expressing my condolences kind of feels more appropriate! ** _ ”

Mermista raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t you think you’re being, like, a little dramatic?”

Glimmer gave the mermaid a death glare.

“Either you shut up  _** right now ** _ , or by the Heart of Etheria,  _** I swear, the first thing I’ll do after giving birth to this child will be KICKING YOUR ASS! ** _ ”

Mermista raised her hands defensively.

“Okay. Okay. We were just leaving!”

Bow was a little relieved that there was two fewer people in the room now, but there was still way too many inside for it to be anything close to comfortable.

He growled.

_** “ I swear to the stars, I will shove all of you out of the room myself if I have to! ” ** _

“Me and Scorpia can help with Glimmer. Everyone else, you heard him, get out of here!” Perfuma said, gently shoving Netossa and Spinerella who were standing next to her towards the door.

The two of them just waved.

“Alright, we’ll be... on our way. Good luck!” Spinerella said and waved while her wife just gave them an awkward smile.

They had friends that had kids biologically related to them, but they’d never gotten this close to watching the actual birth before. Not that that was something either of them had ever desired to see.

Entrapta on the other hand didn’t move at all. She was mesmerized. She’d never watched anything like this before – well, not with humans anyway.

“Eeek, this is so exciting! Can I stay?”

“YOU ABSOLUTELY CANNOT!”

“Childbirth is one of the most fascinating experiences in nature! It would be incredibly thrilling to see it from up close.“

Bow pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to scream. He really, really liked Entrapta and went to her for advice when it came to technology a lot. But he also really, really didn’t have the patience to deal with her right now.

...or with anyone, really. 

“Well, if you’re so fascinated, just have your own kid!”

She thought for a moment.

“Hmmm... Interesting suggestion.”

**_ “ Do me a favor and contemplate it OUTSIDE! ” _ **

He was losing his mind. He was officially completely losing his mind.

“...am I making you uncomfortable? I feel like I might be making you uncomfortable.”

Bow was fighting the urge not to just straight up scream for a solid thirty seconds, took another deep breather and looked at Entrapta sternly.

“Listen. You’re great, but right now, _I would appreciate it_ _ if you could give us a little bit of privacy _ _. **Thank you.**_ ”

“...right. Sorry. Good luck!“

Bow let out a long-drawn-out sigh when she finally left the room.

Now the only people left in there were Scorpia and Perfuma – well, and Frosta, because she was waiting for them, but she was facing the door and seemed to have absolutely no desire to turn around again.

This was better. Still not even close to ideal, but better.

“Can’t I at least try to climb the table myself if I have to give birth here?” Glimmer protested. “I’m not a baby anymore!”

But the protest was quiet and weak because she was tired and hurting and pretty sure it would fall on deaf ears anyway.

“Right. You’re not a baby, but you’re having one, and you still can’t stand up, so you’re not climbing anything.” He kissed her forehead. “I love all of you, including your stubborn nature, but right now I need you to not be stubborn for once in your life and let us help you, okay?”

She grimaced, but let them lift her onto the table without protest afterwards.

That she was lying instead of sitting now felt a little better, but really just very slightly. She still wanted her bed. Or maybe just to straight up die so the pain would end. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this.

...had the pain been that bad from the beginning? How in the galaxy had she sat through several hours of that?!

Her panic got worse by the second as the pain also worsened, and she became more and more certain that she was actually going to die, right here, in the middle of the fucking meeting room table and that she would never get to meet or hold her baby or-

She felt Bow‘s hand in hers, his soft, loving voice pulling her out of her thoughts and back into reality.

“Hey... I’m right here, okay? Shhh. You’ll be fine. I promise you’ll both be okay.”

He was sitting next to her on the table now.

“It hurts so much...”

“I know. I know. The healer will be here soon. You’ll be okay.” She put her head in his lap. He ran his fingers through her hair. “Just breathe...”

And Glimmer did just that, trying to tune out all the background noise and the pain as she breathed.

Bow looked up at Scorpia and Perfuma, on hand still on Glimmer’s hair, the other one squeezing hers.

“...thank you for the help.”

“Always. Can we help you with anything else?” Perfuma asked.

“Not much, we just really need Adora and Catra to be back.” He hesitated for a moment. “Although... I mean, you two are the only ones out of our friend group that have actually had a baby so far, so any advice you could give us right now would be appreciated?”

Scorpia smiled sheepishly.

“I wish we could, but... I actually had Thorn in a medical chamber, so this isn’t really comparable to begin with. And also, I had a c-section, so I don’t think anything we could tell you would be especially helpful right now. Sorry.”

Almost all Scorpioni-children were brought into the world via c-sections because the chances of the child accidentally harming the mother during birth with their pincers and stinger was pretty high, making natural birth too dangerous in most cases.

“She’s right. We could offer you some parenting advice later on, though,” Perfuma added. “But I think we should leave you two alone here for now, anyway.”

“Yeah, that would probably be for the best. Thanks again, you two.”

“Anytime.”

A calming scent of lavender remained in the air when the two of them left.

“Will... will she be okay?” Frosta asked softly when Perfuma and Scorpia walked up to her to leave the room.

Frosta still had her back turned to the whole situation but Glimmer’s agonized cries were hard to ignore. She was genuinely terrified.

Perfuma rubbed her hair.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine, don’t worry too much about her, okay? Glimmer can handle herself. She always could.”

“Yeah, okay, I guess that’s true...” Frosta admitted, still somewhat skeptic.

Not that she’d spent much time prior to this thinking about childbirth, but she’d never imagined it was this painful. 

She shuddered.

Scorpia put one of her arms around the ice princess.

“Come on, kid. Let’s give the lady some privacy.”

”...okay.” If anyone else had called Frosta kid, especially now that she was an adult, she’d have smacked them on the head with her ice fists. But Scorpia and Perfuma were her moms, so she could let it slide when it came to them... Maybe. “Since I doubt we’ll continue with the meeting today, can we pick up Thorn from daycare now?” She asked when they’d left the room.

Perfuma hugged her daughter, her eyes sparkling.

“Awww, are you missing your little sister?”

“Pffft, no.” Frosta crossed her arms, but Perfuma looked at her with so much love in her eyes that she caved immediately. “Okay, I totally am! Can you blame me? She’s so cute and I love her!” She admitted, her face turning beet-red.

A second later, Scorpia had pulled her wife and her daughter into a crushing bear-hug.

“I love you guys so, so much.”

Perfuma immediate hugged her back.

“We love you too, lightning flower.”

Frosta was just kind of stuck in the middle of the hug between her adoptive mothers.

“Air is still a thing I need, even now that I’m an adult!” she reminded them, only half-serious. “You two are squeezing me to death!”

“Right. Sorry,” Scorpia apologized, relinquishing her grip a little.

When the three of them separated, they were all laughing.

  
  


Bow was just glad that he was finally, _finally_ ,  _** finally ** _ alone with his wife.

He just hoped Adora and Catra would be back really soon, because despite having read a lot of books on pregnancy, labor and delivery over the course of Glimmer’s pregnancy, he had serious doubts he would be able to deliver their baby on his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I had way too much fun with this.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Feedback would be much appreciated!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Good luck?” Adora mumbled.
> 
> Was that a thing you said in a situation like this?
> 
> She wasn’t sure.
> 
> “Yeah, and, uh... Don’t die?” Catra added, more as a joke than anything – then she gulped. She’d never thought about that much before, but... “Can you die during childbirth? Is that- is that a thing that can happen?”
> 
> Judging from the look Asa was giving them, that was apparently actually a thing.
> 
> The brunette felt her blood run cold.
> 
> Melog curled up at her feet and wailed.
> 
> “You can?!” Adora shrieked.
> 
> “IT’S NOT VERY LIKELY, AND NOBODY IS GOING TO DIE!” Bow yelled.
> 
> “Oh, you might be wrong about the nobody dying part,” Glimmer grumbled under her breath as her pain once again eased off a bit. “If these two keep it up, there might be a murder.”

“No, you don’t understand! Glimmer is having the baby!” 

Adora was panicking. And she was also really, really bad at explaining the situation to the poor healer, who was shaking their head and just extremely confused at this point. 

“You said that already. And tell me again why you’re running around as She-Ra?”

There was no real need to panic that much, but telling Adora that wouldn’t have been of much use – she had an immense lack of medical knowledge when it came to most topics, and explaining things to her properly often took hours. Asa had learned that the hard way over the course of the last few years.

“I- uh-” Adora gulped and hid the sword behind her back. She was so nervous she didn’t even remember she had the ability transform back if she wanted to. ”I might have destroyed a wall on the way here, because the corridors led the other way and I needed to be fast, but it wasn’t a supporting one?  _ I think? _ ”

She was full-on rambling now, grinning sheepishly.

Asa just shook their head.

“Why did I even ask...” They looked at She-Ra again. Nothing the young woman had said so far had explained anything about the situation, and the healer was extremely confused now. “Tell me again why you came here instead of Bow and Glimmer if she’s having the baby?”

Asa still didn’t understand what was going on.

Adora gave up.

“You know what? Forget it. Just... grab the medical supplies.“

They listened, despite their confusion, and grabbed a first-aid set.

“...okay? Now what?”

She-Ra just grabbed Asa by the arm and dragged them along after her.

Bow was pretty sure he hadn’t been this freaked out since they’d traveled to space to save Glimmer from Horde Prime’s ship so many years ago.

He needed the others to be back, immediately – especially Adora because there was absolutely no way he could do this without a healer. 

He would if he had to, but he really, really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

Glimmer was in so much pain, and it was terrifying. 

She was usually way too stubborn to admit that she was in pain at all – he vividly remembered that one time when they were younger that she’d broken her arm on a scouting mission and had insisted the entire way back that she was okay and it barely hurt despite the fact that she was unable to move it. ...and that was just one out of several similar examples.

He could, however, only remember about two occasions where he’d actually seen her scream or cry in pain that were even close to comparable to this – one of them had been a teleporting mishap when she was younger, and the other had been when she’d taken a blast to the chest to protect him, which he still felt guilty about so many years later. Both of these incidents had involved several broken bones and had required immediate surgery... and she’d almost died in the second one.

So that she was in this much pain right now was, well... terrifying, to say the least.

He’d read several books on the topic, and they all said that labor was painful, but ‘painful’ wasn’t exactly a great measuring unit for anything.

Was it supposed to be this bad? Was she supposed to be in so much pain? Or was something wrong with her or the baby?

Stars, he was having a really hard time thinking straight at the moment.

Especially since Glimmer was somewhere between screaming and crying the entire time.

“I’m dying.  ** I’m dying! _I DON’T WANT TO DIE ON A FUCKING TABLE!_** ”

He stroked his thumb over the back of her hand.

“You’ll be okay, I promise. And you’re not going to die.”

He was trying to calm himself down as much as her. Stars, he’d not expected this to be so scary.

...and maybe it wouldn’t have been, hadn’t it happened in the meeting room instead of her own room or the healers’ chamber.

But that didn’t matter now. The situation was what it was, and they kind of had to work with that. ...no matter how much the thought of maybe having to deliver the baby himself made him panic.

“You just need to remember how to breathe, okay? Just like we practiced.”

Bow’s smile felt weak even to him.

Glimmer squeezed his hand a little too tight and let out another scream, but slowly, very slowly, she started breathing steadier.

That was something, at least.

What was taking the others so long?

_ ‘I swear to the stars, they saved Etheria faster than this...’ _

The door flung open.

“Sorry, I wanted to be here sooner, but Melog was trying to be helpful, and, spoilers, they weren’t, so I spent several minutes collecting the pillows from the floor again. Twice,” Catra mumbled sheepishly as she entered, arms full of pillows.

Melog meowed in protest.

“I- listen, we can discuss this later, okay? Now is  _ not _ the time.” She handed Bow the pillows and a sterile blue blanket that was still packaged. “Here you go.”

He let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you.” 

This was a start, at least. The situation was still more than awful, and he really, really needed Adora to come back quickly... but it was a start.

He took the next few minutes to make his wife as comfortable as it was possible to be on a meeting room table.

Meanwhile, Catra got closer to the table and awkwardly forced herself to maybe try and have a normal conversation, despite the situation.

When she looked at Glimmer’s ashen face that was distorted with pain, the brunette’s heart dropped to her gut.

“Shit, you...” She gulped. “I thought you looked bad at the meeting, but...  _ holy shit _ .”

The brunette was immensely startled by how awful her friend looked.

“ _ Thanks Catra,  ** THAT IS IMMENSELY HELPFUL RIGHT NOW! ** _ ”

Glimmer knew she looked awful, considering how awful she felt,  _she didn’t really need anyone to tell her about it to remind her of it constantly._

Maybe Glimmer would feel bad for yelling at everyone around her so much later.

Right now, she didn’t. 

In the slightest.

Catra flinched.

“Right. Sorry. You look great...?” She grinned sheepishly. “I really like what you, uh, did with your hair?”

She had no clue how to deal with the situation.

Glimmer just grimaced.

**_ “ ...would you please just shut up?” _ **

She groaned.

“Right. Sorry.” Catra rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m... not great with stuff like this.”

“You don’t say.”

This was probably the most deadpan way Glimmer had ever spoken.

“...should I give you guys some space? I’m going to give you space, I should check what’s keeping Adora so long. I’ll be right back.”

She waved awkwardly and backed out of the room. 

Melog followed her immediately.

“Is this better?” Bow asked when he was finished setting the pillows.

“A little?” Glimmer sobbed, hugging one of the pillows to her chest. The one under her head did a lot to increase her comfort, and the blanket also helped a lot, but... “I just want my bed.”

“I know, sweetie. I know.“ He kissed her forehead. “Later. I promise.”

“But I want it now...”

Her husband sighed.

“Yeah, I know that, too. And I swear, if we could arrange that, I would do it in a heartbeat. But we kind of have to make do with what we have.” He squeezed her hand. “Tell me again why you scheduled a meeting one week before your due date in the first place?”

Maybe distracting her with talking to her would help a little. And even if it didn’t help much, he was still genuinely curious.

He’d already made a mental note to check with their friends and the guards more often when they had their next child – they’d both agreed they wanted more than one relatively early on –, because he was not going to be surprised by another ‘oh by the way, we have a meeting tomorrow at six in the morning’ one week before his wife’s due date ever again,  _ especially not after this _ .

Glimmer groaned, but she responded anyway.

“Well, I didn’t think we’d spend a week discussing stuff, or that she’d be early...”

Bow raised an eyebrow.

“You know she might not even be early because the due date is just an estimate, right?”

“...huh?” Now that she thought about it... “Shit, Asa did say something like that in one of the earlier checkups and I completely forgot about it.” Glimmer groaned. “I’m such an idiot...”

Really, she had no one but herself to blame for the situation – but she was having a hard time dealing with the pain, and screaming at the world made it a little easier.

When the next contraction hit, she squalled in pain and squeezed his hand again, way too tight, and she knew if she kept this up she would probably end up breaking his fingers, but he just smiled through the firm squeeze and rubbed the back of her hand again.

“It will be okay. And you’re not an idiot. A bit forgetful? Maybe. Way too stubborn? Definitely. But I wouldn’t have you any other way. ...even if it results in our first baby being born in the meeting room.” He chuckled at the absurdity of the situation and squeezed her hand. “I love you Glim. Always have, always will. No matter what.”

“I could just about  _**strangle someone right now** because HOLY FUCK THIS HURTS SO MUCH-_ ” She forced herself to take a deep breath and smiled weakly. “But I love you, too, sweetie.”

Maybe one minute passed, maybe five, but it felt like an eternity of anxious waiting until the door finally flung open again.

“So, uh, the good news is, I found Adora. And she brought Asa! And medical supplies!” Catra reported when she came in.

“Stars, thank you,” Glimmer sighed.

That was a huge relief.

“The bad news is, uhm-“ 

She-Ra entered after her wife, waving awkwardly.

“ _Hiii._ ”

She hid the sword behind her back.

Bow and Glimmer stared at her for a moment.

“Why are you transformed?” Adora was about to reply when Bow lifted his hands. “You know what? I don’t even want to know. Please just keep the weapon away from my wife and the baby, thank you.”

“Yeah, of course. And good, I won’t tell you! Good! I was just...” She stopped mid-sentence. “Holy shit, Glimmer, you look-”

She broke off when her wife gently nudged her in the ribs and shook her head. Instead of finishing the sentence, Adora just gave an awkward thumbs up.

Glimmer groaned and glared at her friends.

“I hate you both.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Bow said, shaking his head.

_ “ Does anyone else want to remind me how awful I look? Bow? Asa?  ** Anyone?! ** ” _

Asa, who had entered just after Adora, facepalmed and shook their head as they walked up to the table.

“No, thanks, we’re good.” They looked at Glimmer. “So, judging from the pillows and her apparently extremely close contractions, we’re delivering the baby on the meeting room table, aren’t we?”

Everyone nodded.

Asa facepalmed again.

“...I’ve known you guys long enough. Honestly, what was I expecting.”

“...well this is going to be the fastest delivery I’ve ever helped with,” the healer murmured after they‘d checked Glimmer, choosing to put off asking why the couple had waited until the baby was crowning to call for medical staff.

Their best guess was probably Glimmer‘s stubbornness. That was how they explained most things that had happened since they’d first met Glimmer back when she was ten.

“I- uhm... we’ll be... waiting outside? I guess? Call us if you need anything?”

Adora backed away slightly.

She had no idea what she was supposed to do in this situation. They’d never really talked about who was supposed to be present during the birth of the baby – not that that was a topic they’d discussed a lot in general, and even if they had, the situation would have been way different if the place the baby was being born wasn’t a meeting room table –, and now she wasn’t sure if they were supposed to leave or to stay, but she also knew that listening to Glimmer scream was freaking her the fuck out, and she couldn’t take it anymore.

Judging from Catra’s facial expression, her wife felt the same way.

“We‘ll be right outside the door, so just call if you need us, okay?” 

Catra added, and Melog meowed some sort of reassurance that no one except Catra understood. 

“Good luck?” Adora mumbled.

Was that a thing you said in a situation like this? 

She wasn’t sure.

“Yeah, and, uh... Don’t die?” Catra added, more as a joke than anything – then she gulped. She’d never thought about that much before, but... “Can you die during childbirth? Is that- is that a thing that can happen?”

Judging from the look Asa was giving them, that was apparently actually a thing.

The brunette felt her blood run cold.

Melog curled up at her feet and wailed.

“You can?!” Adora shrieked.

Her face went chalk-white. The thought made her so sick she felt like throwing up was very definitely a possibility right now, and her emotions were completely all over the place, so much that She-Ra disappeared and regular Adora was back – which, all things considered, was probably for the best.

“ _ IT’S NOT VERY LIKELY, AND NOBODY IS GOING TO DIE! _ ” Bow yelled.

That was not something he wanted to be thinking about right now, and despite knowing that it was extremely unlikely, the fact that Catra had just brought it up made him freak out all over again and the mental image would probably be haunting him for weeks, even if Glimmer was fine afterwards.

_ Which she would be. _

_** She’d be fine. ** _

Bow closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

_ ‘I think I just forgot how to breathe for a moment.’ _

“Oh, you might be wrong about the nobody dying part,” Glimmer grumbled under her breath as the pain once again eased off a bit. “ _ If these two keep it up, there might be a murder. _ ”

Asa decided now was probably the time to interfere.

“Glimmer is going to be okay. I know the pain she’s going through right now seems scary, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary given the situation. You two can stay in here if you want, or you can wait outside, but please just decide now, and whatever you do, don’t stress her out even more by talking about the possibility her dying in front of her. She will not die, and this is not exactly helpful right now.”

“Yeah, I- Right. We‘ll be- outside or something,” Catra mumbled, just as shaken up by the information that apparently, there was a possibility – however small it might be – that Glimmer could die, as her trembling wife was.

She put an arm around Adora and rubbed her back when they left the room, both knowing that they wouldn’t go very far because if something went wrong while they were away, they’d never forgive themselves.

“Can I have some pain meds? Can I  _ please _ have some pain meds?” Glimmer begged as soon as they’d left the room.

She hadn’t really dared to ask while her friends had still been in here, considering how terrified they’d already been, but she couldn’t take the pain a second longer.

Asa looked at her deadpan.

“My apologies, your Majesty.” That already wasn’t a very good sign. The healer usually just called her Glimmer because they’d known each other since Glimmer was little, and when it came to formal titles, they were usually only brought up when Asa was either annoyed or about to tell the then-princess and now-Queen something that she didn’t want to hear, or both. “I could have done that if you came into the healers’ chamber, like, two hours ago. By the time they would start working, you’ll be long done with the delivery.”

Glimmer felt sick. She was terrified. There was absolutely no way she could do this without medication.

“No, that’s fine. Just give me some pain meds. The baby can stay in there a little longer until the meds kick in!”

It wasn’t a rational or realistic idea, and somewhere deep inside her head, she  _ knew _ that, but she was so freaked out that she would have done pretty much anything for at least a gleam of hope that she wouldn’t have to do it like this.

She was also in massive denial, plain and simple.

"Keep telling yourself that, because that's really not something you get to decide...“

Realistically speaking, the Queen had up to a couple of minutes at max, probably less, until her body would do the job for her, no matter how much she tried to resist. No matter how stubborn the Queen was, she couldn’t go against her body’s natural instincts. That wasn’t how that worked.

Asa shook their head. They really,  _ really _ should have chosen a different career.

Glimmer just sobbed.

"Please... You have to give me something, because it literally feels like I'm being torn in half right now..."

“Isn’t there anything you can do?” Bow asked, squeezing Glimmer’s hand again.

He couldn’t stand seeing his wife in so much pain.

Asa shook their head.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t have anything that would take effect before the baby is born, so that would be kind of useless... that won’t change, no matter how often or how nicely you ask.”

Bow was actually a reasonable, sensible guy most of the time – he was probably the only one out of this group of four friends that was; at least when it came to injuries. 

Asa liked him a lot.

That didn’t change the fact that there wasn’t anything they could do about the situation.

Glimmer just sobbed. Her husband rubbed her hair.

“I’m such an idiot. I should have realized something was off with the whole practice contractions-situation...”

Bow felt awful.

“Yeah, _or_ _maybe I should have just told you what was going on when I figured it out, **but what difference does that make now?!”**_

The love of her life feeling guilty about something out of his control just made her feel worse, not better. 

She just wanted this to be over...

“It will be over soon, Glimmer, I promise,” Asa said and smiled at her encouragingly. “Just stay awake, breathe and push when I tell you to, okay? Your body will do most of this on its own, anyway. You’ll get through this.”

The Queen got on their last nerve sometimes, but Asa had known her for a long time, and at the end of the day, Glimmer was a good person that they liked a lot, even if she drove them crazy most of the time.

“You can do this,” Bow said, squeezing her hand again.

Glimmer took a deep breath and closed her eyes, still immensely terrified, but also determined now.

“Okay... Okay. I can do this.  _ I can do this. _ ”

“Do you think we should go check on them again?”

Catra and Adora were sitting against the door just outside the room, leaning against each other.

The blonde was anxious.

Glimmer being in pain freaked her out, the whole possibility of death during childbirth freaked her out even more and that she was unable to actively help made things so much worse.

Catra was hugging Adora with one arm and petting the equally terrified Melog with the other arm to calm them down a bit.

Neither of them wanted to be far away from Glimmer and Bow, especially in case something went wrong, and they needed She-Ra’s healing powers, or more pillows, or-

The fact that Catra was just about the same level of scared and anxious and restless as her wife and Melog definitely didn’t help the situation, either.

The brunette nodded as her body tensed up again.

“I mean, maybe they need something!”

They had to check on them to make sure Glimmer was still alive. Immediately.

“Right?!”

Both of them got up simultaneously, Melog jumping up and exchanging some worried words with Catra as their emotion indicator fur turned red again, and all three of them all but broke down the door together when they entered the room.

Asa groaned when the door flung open.

‘Not this again...’

This was the third time that Catra and Adora had walked in during the past five minutes, and each time they’d only taken a quick look at their friends to then immediately walk out again.

"Listen, you two, I really do need to concentrate right now, and so does Glimmer, and this distraction of you constantly entering the room to then leave it again is not helping, so either you take a seat and stay or you remain outside from now on."

They were really getting on Asa’s last nerve.

This was the second time today that the healer really, really wished they’d picked a different career.

"But-" Catra started.

She didn’t even get close to finishing the sentence, however, because this was finally the last straw for Glimmer, who had, all things considered, taken a surprisingly long time to blow up at her best friends.

“YOU TWO ARE STRESSING ME OUT  _** MORE THAN THE ACTUAL CHILDBIRTH! ** _ ” That was not really true because  the whole situation felt _much more stressful than everything Glimmer had ever experienced and_ **_everything hurt way too fucking much_ ** , but Adora and Catra were making things way,  way worse .  She’d had it with these two for today.  “SHUT UP AND SIT YOUR ASSES DOWN IMMEDIATELY OR GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE AND STAY OUTSIDE!”

That did it. 

The two of them jumped a mile in fright at the time of her voice, then sat down on the floor immediately.

The Queen smiled through her pain in a really weird, but immensely satisfied way.

_ “Thank you.” _

The two women were instantly reminded why they’d continuously left in the first place despite wanting to constantly check on Glimmer when the latter let out another anguished cry.

Catra and Adora just pulled each other close, burying their heads in each other’s shoulders. This was scary. 

This was really, really terrifying.

They winced at each of Glimmer’s screams, neither of them daring to look.

Melog was curled up against Catra’s back, whimpering.

It felt like an eternity passed in what was in reality just a couple of – albeit terrifying – minutes.  
  


“Just a couple more pushes, okay? You can do it.”

Asa gave the Queen another encouraging smile.

Glimmer groaned, then screamed and clenched her fists. Just a little more. Just a little more and this will all be over.

Bow stroked her hair gently. He had no idea how much pain she was exactly in right now, and he really, really wished it wasn’t this painful for her... but he was also so, so incredibly proud of her.

“It’s almost over, okay? You’re doing great.”

She smiled at him weakly, took a deep breath, let out another scream and closed her eyes to gather every bit of strength left in her body.

  
The next couple of minutes passed in a blur.

And then finally, finally,  _ finally _ the pain let of and a loud cry filled the room. Soon afterwards, the pain was gone almost entirely.

Glimmer let out a sharp breath.

“Well that was a lot more exhausting than I thought it would be,” she mumbled weakly, sinking back into her heavenly soft pillows.

Then the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact about the healer’s name, Asa: it’s a gender neutral name that means “healer”/“physician” in Hebrew, so their name is also a pun, it’s just not as obvious as everyone else’s.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Feedback would be much appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why are you looking at me like that? Did I miss anything important?” Glimmer rubbed her eyes, for the first time since she woke up realizing that her husband was holding a small bundle in his arms. “Hey, what'cha got there?”  
> Bow blinked at her a little irritated, unsure if his wife was kidding or not.  
> “Uh, you know, the baby you just gave birth to today?” He answered after a moment.  
> “Ah, okay.” The Queen of Bright Moon paused when she realized what her husband had just said, then shook her head. “Waiiiiit.” She chuckled. “Yeah, right. Very funny, Bow. The baby’s not coming for another week… Besides, don’t you think that’s something I would remember?”

“Glimmer!” 

Adora shrieked and reached out towards her unconscious friend. All of her friends immediately rushed to the woman’s side.

Asa on the other hand was a little preoccupied swaddling the baby in a small green towel and couldn’t check on the baby’s mother immediately when she passed out.

...and the others freaking out in the background did not help calm the crying newborn down.

“I’ll take you to the healers' chamber right away, okay?” The healer mumbled and rocked the baby a little to calm her down. It didn’t really work. “I know, I know, being born sucks, and then you don’t even get a proper blanket. Life’s unfair. You can complain about that  _all_ you want. I just have to check on mommy real quick so your dad and your aunts can stop yelling, okay?”

The kid was still crying. 

Asa didn’t blame her.

“Bow, would you-“ 

It took one look at him to know that he would not be taking his eyes off his wife for even a single second to take the baby. He was immensely freaked out at Glimmer just passing out like that. 

It was as if the rest of the world has just disappeared, the only two things remaining being him and his unconscious wife, and he apparently couldn’t even hear Asa  or the baby crying. That was how distracted he was. 

Adora and Catra obviously weren’t an option either, as they were currently clinging to each other and crying their eyes out. 

“...alright then, I’m just going to check on her with one hand and hold the the baby in the other arm!  _That’s fine!_ ”

It really, really wasn’t, but it also wasn’t like they had much of a choice.

Asa just groaned.

“Can you guys please calm down a little? It’s not like she died. She just passed out. All of this noise is making the baby upset, and you‘re making it really hard for me to concentrate.”

Adora still refused to let go of Catra, but she did visibly relax, at least a little. After hearing that there was a possibility, no matter how small, that a person could die while giving birth, that was also immediately where her mind had gone after Glimmer had passed out, despite the fact that she was quite obviously breathing.

“...is she going to be okay?” Bow asked after a while, still just looking at his wife mostly in silence and not really realizing what was going on. 

He was holding Glimmer‘s hand while Asa checked her breathing and heart rate, not even letting go of it for a single second. 

The process would have worked better if Bow hadn’t been holding her hand because that got in the way of Asa working a little, but they weren‘t under the impression that he wasn’t going to let go anytime soon. 

That they were holding the crying baby in their arms didn’t exactly help the situation, either... but after some time, they were done checking the basics as well as they currently could.

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry,“ they told the others. “She’s doing pretty good considering she just delivered a baby without pain meds in the middle of the meeting room,” they added and gave Bow a gentle pat on the head. All things considered, Glimmer seemed to be in a relatively good shape. “She’s just exhausted, which is more than understandable after everything. It’s probably going to take some time for her to wake up again, but she’ll be okay. I’m going to get the baby cleaned and checked up now. Maybe you guys could take Glimmer to her bedroom so she’s more comfortable? I’ll examine her there more thoroughly as soon as I’m done making sure the baby is okay, but from what I can tell now, she was barely ever in any actual danger and even if she had been, she is definitely out of it now.” 

The entire room breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that. They all crowded around the table, and for at least a moment, it seemed like nobody other than Asa was paying much attention to the crying little girl in their arms. 

That was just how freaked out everyone was.

“It would probably be for the best if you guys could just used a stretcher to carry her – she’s already going to be sore enough without one of you, like, flinging her over your shoulder or something.”

Bow nodded and was about to ask who would do something like that anyway when he saw the blush and weird look on Adora‘s face that made it very apparent that she felt addressed by what Asa had said.

...he decided not to ask. The best-case scenario for this was probably some weird bedroom-story that he really didn’t want to know – and if it wasn’t that, he had a feeling he wanted to know it even less.

“Could one of you guys go get a stretcher?” He asked after a moment.

Catra nodded, hugged Adora tightly one more time and then slowly untangled herself from her wife.

“I’ll be right back.”

“Promise?”

Adora had tears in her eyes. The whole situation was obviously getting to her  a lot , and she hated the thought of Catra leaving right now, even if it was just for a few minutes.

“Of course. Always. I promise,” the brunette said softly and smiled at the love of her life one more time before turning towards the door.

All three currently awake members of the Best Friend Squad were  _really_ shaken up.

“I’ll just take the baby to your room when I’m done examining her, alright? And Bow... don’t worry about Glimmer too much, okay? She’s going to be okay. She just needs some sleep.”

The healer had known these guys for years. They knew how they each reacted to situations like this, and that no matter what he was told, Bow was going to stay at Glimmer’s side for the next several hours because he wouldn’t be able to completely calm down and stop worrying about her until she woke up again.

Adora would probably try to heal her, which, considering that the main reason the Queen had passed out was exhaustion and not an injury, definitely wouldn’t work – although it would undoubtedly spare her at least some of the soreness when she woke up again.

Meanwhile, Catra would pretend to not be worried in the slightest, when, in reality, she definitely was. 

That was just how they were.

Bow was so focused on worrying about Glimmer, he didn’t even realize he hadn’t seen the baby yet until Asa had already left the room.

The King of Bright Moon was so done with the day, he decided to not even question the gigantic hole in a wall they passed when they brought Glimmer to her room. That was not something he needed to take care of or worry about right now when he already had bigger, way more important things to worry about.

The weird look on Adora’s face when they passed it made him even more certain that that  _really_ wasn’t something he needed to know right now.

He wasn’t able to form many coherent thoughts until they’d finally brought Glimmer back to their room after what felt like ages. 

Adora carefully lifted her friend into bed. 

She closed her eyes to turn into She-Ra, but when she tried to heal Glimmer, it was to absolutely no avail.

The blonde immediately turned back into regular Adora and sank to the floor, completely resigned. This was the first time she could remember that her healing had had absolutely no effect since she’d mastered it, and it scared her, even more than the entire situation in general  _already scared her._

“Asa said she’s tired, not hurt,” Catra commented in an attempt to calm her wife and herself down as she put her arms around Adora. “That’s why this isn’t working.”

Melog nudged the blonde‘s hand in an attempt to cheer her up. It wasn’t really working. Adora nuzzled their nose, anyway.

“You’re probably right, it’s just... I hate feeling so useless.”

“Adora, look at me, okay?” Catra pulled her into a quick kiss. “You’re not useless. Don’t talk like that. You did what you could. Now we just need to let her sleep for a while, alright?”

The blonde just buried her head in her wife’s shoulder and pulled her close.

Meanwhile, Bow was pretty preoccupied making sure Glimmer was as comfortable as humanly possible.

“There, see? I kept my promise. You’re back in your bed now,” he whispered and kissed her forehead as he finished tucking her in. The bed was a thousand times softer and more comfortable than the table had been. Glimmer snuggled into the pillows, groaning softly, but definitely still unconscious. He smiled at her and gently touched her face to brush a strand of hair away. “You did great. Rest now.“

He sat down on a chair next to the bed that they usually shared and held her hand.

“You know I love you, but damn it, Glim, do you always have to be so  _stubborn_ _?_ ” Bow whispered.

He silently cursed to himself.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand why she did it – and honestly, he kind of should have expected it. He’d known Glimmer for so many years now, after all. He knew what she was like – but he still wished this had gone over differently. 

That had been  _terrifying_.

He just wanted her to be okay...

“Should we, uh, give you guys some privacy?“ Catra asked after a while, interrupting her friend’s thoughts.

“I...” Bow sighed. “That might be a good idea, actually. Asa did say it will probably take some time for her to wake up again. I’ll use the tracker pad to contact you as soon as anything changes, okay?”

His friends nodded simultaneously.

“She’ll... be okay, right? Should I heal her again?” Adora asked before they turned to leave.

Bow smiled weakly.

“That’s really sweet, but I agree with what Catra said. The reason it didn’t work the first time is that Glimmer isn’t really hurt much – like Asa said, she’s just exhausted.” He kept telling himself that, because it was much more calming than any possible alternative explanation why the healing hadn’t worked. “Oh, and, speaking of... thanks for the help earlier, you two.”

Catra scratched her head.

“I mean, honestly, we were  _not_ very helpful,” she admitted.

“Yeaaah, she kind of has a point. I mean, I broke down a wall. And Glimmer yelled at us a lot, sooo...” Adora added in agreement.

“The constant running into and out of the room  _really_ wasn’t very helpful... But other than that, I’m really glad I had you two to help me. I swear, I almost had a heart attack when I thought I might have to deliver the baby myself.” He shuddered. “Oh, by the way, is it... okay for you guys to wait a bit before you meet the baby? I think if Glimmer wakes up today, she’ll probably be too tired for visitors, and I don’t want to overwhelm the child immediately.”

“Of course.”

“We’ll be... in our room, or something,” Adora mumbled.

She was still shaking a little.

“We’ll see you tomorrow”, Catra added, taking her wife’s hand and giving Glimmer one more worried glance as they left the room.

“ _ Catra _ _?_ ” Adora whispered when they’d closed the door behind them.

Her wife turned around and looked at her.

“Yeah?”

“Promise me something, okay?“ Adora gulped. “Promise me we won’t do this anytime soon, because no child in the universe could ever be worth losing you.”

She loved her so much. She couldn’t be without her again, not after everything they’d gone through to find their way back into each other’s arms. The thought alone was enough to make her panic.

“Hey...” Her wife hugged her gently. “You’re not losing me again any time soon, okay? I promise.” Melog nudged Catra gently as they meowed in protest. “Alright, alright.  _Us_ _._ You’re not losing  _us_ anytime soon. Point taken.”

Adora bit her lip.

“I... sorry. For being so weird, I mean. This whole situation has me pretty freaked out.”

Catra chuckled a bit.

“Adora... you’ve always been weird. That’s what I like about you,  _you doofus_.” She gently nudged her in the ribs. “And I think we’re all pretty freaked out right now.” She looked down at her animal companion. “Including Melog. So it’s not exactly just a _‘_ _you’_ -problem. Some of us are just _a_ _little better at hiding their emotions than others.”_ She squeezed her wife’s hand and kissed her cheek. “Want me to distract you for a while?”

Adora blushed and smiled.

“Always.”

“Hey, Bow?”

He gave a jerk when Asa put a hand on his shoulder. At some point, he’d completely zoned out in the chair, and was therefore really startled when they touched him.

“Oh, hey.”

He didn’t even look up. 

He still hadn’t let go of Glimmer’s hand and continued to stare at her, looking for any sign of improvement or worsening in her condition. He still saw neither, which was worrying and at least somewhat calming at the same time.

He wasn’t even sure how much time had passed since Adora and Catra had left. 

Everything was kind of a blur.

“Would you look up for a moment? I can keep my eyes on Glimmer for you while you do it, but there’s someone here that would love to meet you.”

He reluctantly tore his eyes away from his wife to look at the small bundle Asa was holding in their arms. Then, finally, the reality of the situation hit him. In all of his worries about Glimmer, he’d almost blanked out on the reason she had passed out in the first place.

The baby.

_ They had a baby. _

“Congratulations.” The healer handed him the small blue bundle. The baby was swaddled in a soft blanket now. She didn’t seem to hate the world as much anymore since. “You’re officially a father now. She’s perfectly healthy.”

For what might have been seconds, minutes or hours – he really couldn’t tell –, the world stood still as he held his daughter in his arms for the first time.

He immediately broke down in tears.

She was perfect in every way imaginable. He could see a bit of himself in her with her dark brown eyes and her very mixed skin tone... but other than that, the girl was Glimmer’s spitting image. She had her nose and her smile, and the bit of hair she already had on her head was a soft purple color.

“Hi...”

He held her carefully, one arm supporting her head as she yawned and snuggled against him.

_ Stars, even her yawns were perfect... _

He was surprised by how light she was, and by how warm her tiny little figure felt against his skin. It wasn’t a feverish warmth, but that of a happy, healthy baby that was safely swaddled in what was probably the most comfortable blanket he had ever touched.

“She’s really cute, isn’t she?” Asa smiled to themselves. They loved seeing new parents get emotional over their children. It was the cutest thing in the entire world.

“She’s amazing...” He breathed.

Asa used the time that Bow was gushing over the baby to check on Glimmer again, properly this time. As they’d expected, she was exhausted, but other than that, she was physically mostly fine – even a little better than she had been when they left, indicating that Adora had most definitely attempted to heal her.

“I know you always worry about her a lot, but... Glimmer will be alright. She’s doing really good, she just needs some sleep, I promise. Enjoy your time with the baby, okay? I‘ll give you guys some space now.” 

Bow nodded. He was still immensely worried about his wife, despite everything, but for a small moment, he managed to blank out on that while he looked at his newborn baby girl. 

Asa smiled at the little family. These guys drove them crazy most of the time... but in the end, Asa liked them a lot and just wanted them to be happy.

“And Bow?”

“Yeah?”

“I love you guys, and you know that, but... should you ever decide that another one of your kids should be born in the meeting room, please call a different healer.”

The King of Bright Moon chuckled.

“Understood.”

He was not going to let that happen  _ever again_.

Not that he thought said  _next time_ would be anytime soon – they would take some time getting used to this little angel, and Glimmer would need some time to recover – stars, after the day they’d just had,  _Bow was pretty sure he also needed some time to recover_ before he could even  _think_ of having another child; both because the meeting room situation had been... less than ideal and immensely stressful, and because the aftermath that still made him incredibly worried about his wife was something he could only take every once in a while.

For a long while, he just sat there, holding his daughter in his arms and squeezing his sleeping wife’s hand every once in a while, refusing to leave her side before she woke up.

He spent a long time just holding the baby and rocking her and telling her stories about her incredibly stubborn mom while he waited for his wife to wake up.

When Glimmer opened her eyes, the world was dark and pretty blurry at first. She blinked a couple of times, and slowly, the weird colors and shapes turned into her bedroom.

“...huh?”

“Oh thank the stars, you’re finally awake.” Bow hugged her. He sounded really relieved. “I was so worried about you.”

Glimmer was just confused.

“What the... Bow? What happened?”

Her memory was pretty hazy.

“How are you feeling?” 

He kind of just passed over her question, assuming she would remember in a moment when she was more awake. 

“I... don’t know.” She groaned. Her body felt weird. “Sore and exhausted, I guess? Other than that, pretty okay.”

He beamed at her.

“That... that’s great. I’m glad. You scared me a bit there.”

There was so much love and worry in his eyes, and _Glimmer_ _ didn’t have a clue what was going on._

“Why are you looking at me like that? Did I miss anything important?” Glimmer rubbed her eyes, for the first time since she woke up realizing that her husband was holding a small bundle in his arms. "Hey, what'cha got there?"

Bow blinked at her a little irritated, unsure if his wife was kidding or not.

“Uh, you know,  _the **baby **__you just gave birth to today_?” He answered after a moment.

“Ah, okay.” The Queen of Bright Moon paused when she realized what her husband had just said, then shook her head. “ _Waiiiiit._ ” She chuckled. “Yeah,  _right. Very funny, Bow._ The baby's not coming for another week...”

Glimmer sounded genuinely amused.

Her husband was a bit speechless for a moment.

_ ‘...Okay, apparently she‘s serious. And very, **very** out of it.’ _

He decided it was probably better to ease her into it instead of just blurting things out again if she really didn’t remember, so he tried to jog her memory a bit.

“What’s the last thing you remember, love?”

“We were... at the meeting, I think?” She thought for a moment. “Did I fall asleep and you brought me here? We should get back to the meeting.”

Bow groaned. Apparently she had even forgotten that she’d had contractions at the meeting.

“No, we should not.” He stroked her hair. “The meeting ended a pretty long while ago, Glim.”

She stared at him in surprise.

“Really?” She rubbed her temples. “My memory about how it ended is a little fuzzy... Care to remind me?”

Her husband chuckled. 

“Yeah, no kidding.” Apparently there was no way around simply telling her again since she didn’t seem to remember anything at all. “ _ Glimmer, you had the baby. _ ”

She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Sweetie, that joke wasn’t even funny the first time. I didn’t have the baby yet. Don’t you think that’s something I would remember?”

Bow bit his tongue.

_ ‘Well, yeah, I had assumed you would, but apparently not...’ _

Glimmer just sighed when he remained silent.

“...okay, if you won’t be serious and tell me how the meeting ended, will you at least tell me how long I was out?”

He shrugged. He hadn’t exactly checked the time a lot since she’d passed out, but the fact that it was dark outside was pretty telling in itself.

“Oh, you know, just a couple of hours.”

**_ “Hours?!”  _ **

She tried to sit up, but didn’t really manage to. Shit, she’d just slept for what felt like ages, and she still felt awful and exhausted. What was wrong with her? 

Was...  _oh stars, was the baby okay?_

She went pale. 

_ Bow wouldn’t have been joking around like this if their daughter wasn’t alright, would he? _

Glimmer patted her belly and panicked.

“She’s not kicking. Why isn’t she kicking?! She should be kicking!” She gulped when she looked down. “...why is my belly so small? Is she okay? Please tell me she’s okay...”

Bow felt bad because his wife was so upset – he absolutely hated seeing her cry –, but it was also just a tiny bit amusing that his wife was so woozy, she just straight up missed the fact that he had a baby in his arms.

“ _Glim..._ ” He started and wanted to explain the situation to her once again. Then the baby woke up from all the fuss and started crying. Apparently their daughter didn’t like that her mom was sad, either. Bow turned his attention to the baby for a moment. “Awww, mom being upset made you upset, too, huh?” He tickled the child and gently tapped her nose. “Mom’s okay, I promise. She’s just... a little out of it right now. And really worried about you, despite not needing to be, because she loves you so,  _sooo_ _much_ and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you.”

The baby giggled.

Glimmer lifted her head. 

She was wide awake all of a sudden.

Her eyes went wide when she finally realized what Bow was holding.

“Oh stars, you weren’t kidding...” She mumbled, then gasped for air when she looked at her daughter for the first time. “She’s so small... she felt so much bigger.”

She couldn’t stop staring at the tiny child in her husband‘s arms, slowly reaching for the little girl to touch her. She was completely mesmerizing.

Bow smiled at his wife.

“So, now that we’ve established that the child was actually, really born already... do you want to hold her?“

Glimmer teared up again. It was happy tears this time.

She still couldn’t believe it.

“Can I?”

“Of course.”

He placed the baby securely in her mother’s arms.

Glimmer started full-on sobbing, which made Bow’s expression immediately changed from happy to worried.

“Is something wrong? Does anything hurt? Should I go get the healer?”

She shook her head.

“No, I- I’m fine, it’s just...” She rocked the baby in her arms and squealed. “I... can’t believe we made this. Oh Bow, she’s perfect. She’s so beautiful...”

He kissed Glimmer’s forehead.

“She has your nose,” he whispered.

“And your eyes...” Glimmer sobbed as she held the baby close. “Hi...” The little girl giggled. “Hi... I’m your mom...”

The baby squeaked.

“Look, she’s saying ‘ _hi_ ’ back!”

For a while, Glimmer just smiled at the baby. She couldn’t stop looking at her.

Then the Queen’s eyes widened in shock.

“...Oh stars, she was born on the meeting room table, wasn’t she?”

Apparently the memories were finally coming back, after all.

“Yeah, kinda.” Bow chuckled. Now that he knew both his wife and the baby would be okay, he could laugh about it. “I told you your stubbornness would come back to bite you eventually.”

She sighed.

“Yeah, I guess.” The memories were definitely back now, and  _oh stars had she been a dumbass._ “That whole thing was  not my brightest moment. And I promise, I’ll never do that again.” She shuddered. “That was terrible. I’m not giving birth to another kid without pain meds,  _EVER AGAIN._ Lesson learned.”

“That counts for something, I guess.” He squeezed her hand, still completely mesmerized by the baby. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, just like his wife couldn’t, despite the fact that unlike her, he had already been looking at their daughter for several hours before this.“I wish you hadn’t been in that much pain. That was  _really_ hard to watch.”

“I yelled at everyone a lot, didn’t I?” She kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, really. I’m just... really glad you’re okay. I was pretty scared for a moment there, especially when you passed out. Please never do that again.”

He finally managed to tear his eyes away from his daughter to look directly at his wife for a moment.

“Yeah, it’s... I’m okay. And I won’t. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

He rubbed her head.

“That’s all I wanted to hear. And yeah, you should have told me what was going on earlier, that would have been easier for everyone involved – but it’s not like you did it deliberately.”

Glimmer bit her lip and looked at her daughter again.

“I... did you... name her yet?”

Bow shook his head.

“I thought you’d probably want to be awake and do it with me – and I also wanted to make sure we talk about the name one more time before we do it, in case you changed your mind about-”

“No,” Glimmer cut in. “The name we picked is perfect... and I don’t feel ready to name this one after my mom yet. Maybe we can do that with the next one in a couple of years, if that’s okay with you, but I don’t feel ready yet. That hasn’t changed.”

“Of course that’s okay with me.” He kissed her cheek and tapped the baby’s nose carefully. “In that case... hi, Arrow.”

“Hi Arrow,” Glimmer breathed.

It felt like the most magical sentence in the universe.

The baby squeaked happily.

Bow teared up again.

“I think she likes it.”

Glimmer smiled, also sobbing happily.

“I think so, too.”

The baby looked so happy.

There was no place in the galaxy either of them would have rather been right now.

Bow protectively put an arm around his family, thinking back to the promise he had made to Glimmer’s mother such a long time ago.

_ ‘I will protect them, Angella. I promise I will protect them with my life and keep them safe until the day I die.’ _

He hoped she could see them now. 

He hoped she saw them and knew that her daughter was happy.

She would have loved the baby, he was sure of that.

Bow would have given  _anything_ if it’d just meant that Angella would at least get to hold her grandchild once, or for her to have one more conversation with her daughter, for them to at least find some closure after everything that had happened.

Glimmer still missed her mother  so, _so much_... even after all these years without her.

His wife leaned into his touch and beamed.

“We need to contact Adora and Catra real quick, okay? I promised to let them know when you wake wake up,” he remembered suddenly, picking up his tracker pad from the bedside table.

“Awww, were they worried about me?” Glimmer asked, a little teasingly and very, very touched. Bow squeezed her shoulder. 

“We all were.”

About half an hour later, Glimmer was sitting on her bed, her daughter in her arms, munching on what still remained of one of the sandwiches someone from the kitchen staff had been kind enough to make them at this hour. She had slept through every meal but breakfast, after all... and Bow had either been so worried that he’d been unable to eat, or he’d just kind of forgotten it when he’d refused to leave his wife’s side. 

...or maybe it was both.

Arrow seemed much more comfortable and happy being breastfed than she’d been with the bottle when they tried that. She seemed to drink more this way. That was definitely something to keep in mind for the future.

Eventually, all three of them sat down on the bed. It had been a long day for all of them, despite the fact that both Glimmer and Arrow had slept through most of it.

Glimmer hummed to her baby for a while until the child fell back asleep. The crib was standing next to the bed, so neither of them would have to get up to put the baby into it later.

When Arrow finally did fall asleep, Glimmer closed her eyes for a moment, snuggling closer to her husband and smiling to herself as she looked out the window into the night sky.

For a moment, it was almost like the present and the past were one... like she could see her past self standing in front of her window, not far from where she was sitting now, reaching out into the darkness of the night to make a wish right at this moment... not yet knowing that her life was about to change forever and that she was about to find the love of her life in the woods by coincidence.

  
_Once upon a time, on an especially lonely night, she‘d looked up at where the stars should have been – where her mom always said her dad was – and had wished for a friend._

_ Two days later, she had met Bow in the Whispering Woods. _

_ Today, Glimmer looked up at the sparkling stars in the sky – where she knew her mother was now –, her husband’s arms around her shoulders, her tiny perfect newborn sleeping against her chest... and she was happy._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Claps hands together* And that’s a wrap, you guys!  
> This is actually the first multi-chapter-fic I have finished in a while (I’m pretty good at starting but not quite as good at finishing stories 😂), and I’m actually pretty proud of myself for finishing it and really happy with how it turned out. It’s also my longest piece in a while, at least as far as writing multiple pretty long parts in a relatively short amount of time goes.  
> (The first two parts of this are each about 4k words, this one is about 5k words long, in case anyone is curious.)  
> The picture at the end was a commission made for me by the amazing @grinux on tumblr, you should go check out her account, she’s awesome!  
> I had so much fun writing this, and I hope you guys enjoyed it! Feedback would be much appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> ...I had way too much fun with this.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Feedback would be much appreciated!


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